As of yesterday, the first entry to the “Eternity’s Irys” series, “Two Minutes to Midnight”, is finally complete.

I am finally happy with the outcome of five years of writing.

Currently, my brother and I are putting together some proof copies. He’s doing most of the technical work I can’t handle as well as redesigning the cover. He expects to have them before Christmas.

It feels unreal and I can’t even say I’m 100% happy. I just… am. I think it’ll be different when I finally hold it.

I spent so long trying to manually format and edit the whole thing that I ended up using Atticus for formatting and ProWritingAid for some editing assistance. We didn’t agree on everything, but it helped me reword some stuff and reduce repetition and excessive verbosity.

I have a cover artist in the wings with a June of 2024 deadline, however I may publish my first edition sooner. I’m not counting this proof copy as a formal edition, but it will come in a limited batch of 4.

I still feel largely nothing for some reason. Maybe it hasn’t set in that I’m actually finished.

For now.

I ended on such a severe cliff hanger with so many open threads I almost feel bad. However, addressing even ONE of those threads tacked on 100 more pages and like 30k more words. It became tedious. So… I let all the threads hang flapping in the wind. Don’t worry, I have them all plotted out into the second book so nothing will go unanswered or unaddressed. It just couldn’t be done now.

I think the process for the next book will be much more streamlined. I have a much better idea of what I’m doing. It’ll hopefully move at a better pace. I always thought this one tracked a bit on the slow side, but far from unreadable.

The first book was, from the start, intended to lay groundwork and that’s about it. I think it does that and moves the story into a position where I can take it wherever I need to.

I decided on “Two Minutes to Midnight” as an homage to the Doomsday Clock. The Doomsday Clock tracks how close we are to the end of the world as we know it. In case you were curious, we’re currently, in real life, at 90 seconds to midnight. Midnight being “the end”. Not necessarily rapture or hellfire, but a dire change in the way our world functions. The clock moves forward and back depending on what plays out on the world stage. Negative events, like war, move it forward. Progressive events, like reducing CO2 emissions, moves it back. it’s far easier to move it ahead than back.

The book starts at 120 seconds to that world’s apocalypse.

It still needs some work, but I think having an actual physical representation of the final product will help me get through fixing the last of it up. We’re at the polishing stage now. Maybe after this, I’ll open it up to beta readers and… maybe even an actual editor… Who knows. I sure don’t.

Anyway, there’s a small holiday “gift” in the works, but for now, that’s all I have to really say. Hopefully there’ll be some kind of meltdown once I have the books in my hands. We shall see.

Until next time,
Tav
🦑💜🦇